Previewing Weekday Games in College Football -Week 1

We will take a look at a few college football games that are played during the week (not Saturday, Sunday or Monday) that have a line under a 9.5 points each week of the season. Sometimes there may be many games and others have few or none.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Northwestern at Purdue

O/U 51, Line Purdue -2.5

TV: ESPN

The Big Ten opens their season with a powerful game as these two teams are both better than mediocre and hoe to get started on the right foot and some momentum into other conference contests. The Northwestern Wildcats are coached by Pat Fitzgerald who has built a culture that expects to win. In the previous six seasons, Northwestern has won 10 games three times. The Purdue Boilermakers are led by Jeff Brohm, in his second year, who guided the team to a 7-6 record after inheriting a 3-9 team. They only won 4 games in the conference but this year more is expected.

Northwestern will be counting on senior quarterback Clayton Thorson to lead the team since they have no experience running backs in the mix. Another issue is this is the first game back for Thorson after tearing his ACL in a bowl contest at the end of last year. The most experience appears to be Flynn Nagel and Ben Skowronek at wide receiver. On the defensive side of the ball, Northwestern is sorely lacking experienced players. The few returnees are Paddy Fisher at linebacker and Joe Gaziano who led the team in sacks.

Purdue has two quarterbacks they can count on at various situations in the game. Elijah Sindelar and David Blough bring a strong arm and a fleet-footed runner to the team. Situational decisions will determine the quarterback on the field. Running back Markell Jones will finally get a fulltime job and hopes to build on his 423 yards and one touchdown from last season. The defense under Brohm was very good as they were 24th in the nation at one point of the year. Experience is a problem for the defense but Markus Bailey is back to enhance his 89 tackles and 7.o sacks from 2017.

Wake Forest at Tulane

Our second game of the day involves Wake Forest at Tulane. This game will be televised on the CBS Sports Network and be held at Yulman Stadium with an 8 PM kickoff. The current line on the game is Tulane +7 with an O/U of 56.

Wake Forest enters this contest will much anticipation as they have been to bowl games the past two seasons and are considered a darkhorse in the ACC. The clear problem that exists for the Demon Deacons is their top quarterback, Kendall Hinton, has been suspended for the first three games. They will lean heavily on running back Matt Colburn II to exceed his 900 yards and 7 touchdowns from last year.

Tulane’s head coach, Willie Fritz, is beginning to hear rumbles due to not being in a bowl for the previous four years. Things should improve as quarterback Jonathan Banks is back to improve on his 12 touchdowns and over 500 yards from 2017. He will be looking for wide receiver help from Jabril Clewis, Terren Encalade, and Darnell Mooney. This offense will be in good shape and score points.

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